The Buccaneers lost for the seventh time in their last eight games on Sunday, but the curtain hasn’t dropped on their season yet.
Carolina’s loss to the Seahawks means that the Bucs will have a chance to win the NFC South and advance to the playoffs by beating the Panthers at home in Week 18. They don’t control their own destiny because the Panthers would win a three-way tiebreaker with the Falcons, but just being alive given the way they’ve played over the second half of the season is enough for quarterback Baker Mayfield to recognize their good fortune.
“Offensively, it comes back to execution,” Mayfield said, via the team’s website. “We gave ourselves a fighting chance right there but didn’t do enough. Those turnovers obviously crushed us. We still have a chance next week. We’ve been blessed with a chance next week and we’ve got to handle it the right way.”
The Bucs haven’t shown that they’re capable of that kind of performance in quite some time, but the Panthers haven’t been the model of consistency either and playing at home should benefit a team that is trying to win the division with a losing record for the second time in the last four years.
